through
Heinzman--on the second mortgage, the latter would occasion
him no loss.

The net results of the whole transaction would be: first,
that Newmark would have acquired personally the 300,000,000
feet of northern peninsula timber; and, second, that Orde's
personal share in the stock company would flow be held in
partnership by the two. Thus, in order to gain so large a
stake, it would pay Newmark to suffer considerable loss
jointly with Orde in the induced misfortunes of the firm.

Incidentally it might be remarked that Newmark, of course,
purposed paying his own note to the firm when it should fall
due in 1885, thus saving for himself the Boom Company stock
which he had put up as collateral.

Affairs stood thus in the autumn before the year the notes would come
due. The weather had been beautiful. A perpetual summer seemed to have
embalmed the world in its forgetfulness of times and seasons. Navigation
remained open through October and into November. No severe storms had as
yet swept the lakes. The barge and her two tows had made one more trip
than had been thought possible. It had been the intention to lay them
up for the winter, but the weather continued so mild that Orde suggested
they be laden with a consignment for Jones and Mabley, of Chicago.

"Did intend to ship by rail," said he. "They're all 'uppers,' so it
would pay all right. But we can save all kinds of money by water, and
they ought to skip over there in twelve to fifteen hours."

Accordingly, the three vessels were laid alongside the wharves at the
mill, and as fast as possible the selected lumber was passed into their
holds. Orde departed for the woods to start the cutting as soon as the
first belated snow should fall.

This condition seemed, however, to delay. During each night it grew
cold. The leaves, after their blaze and riot of colour, turned crisp and
crackly and brown. Some of the little, still puddles were filmed with
what was almost, but not quite ice. A sheen of frost whitened the house
roofs and silvered each separate blade of grass on the lawns. But by
noon the sun, rising red in the veil of smoke that hung low in the
snappy air, had mellowed the atmosphere until it lay on the cheek like a
caress. No breath of wind stirred. Sounds came clearly from a distance.
Long V-shaped flights of geese swept athwart the sky, very high up, but
their honking came faintly to the